NCAA tale of the tape.: USC vs. UCLA

NCAA tale of the tape.: USC vs. UCLA

Sure, college sports play a smaller role in Los Angeles than in the towns of the SEC, but the rivalry between USC and UCLA can’t be dismissed. The two campuses are fewer than 15 miles apart. It’s a long-standing grudge that divides one of America’s great cities. And it will be on full display at the NCAA Championship.

Golf rivalries are more muted than those that take place on the gridiron, but there’s one certainty. “We want to win and beat them as badly as they want to beat us,” said USC head coach Chris Zambri. “We get along, but I think the rivalry definitely extends to golf.”

The Trojans are the hosts for this week’s NCAA Championship, though UCLA is located fewer than six miles from Riviera. The Bruins captured their first NCAA Championship in 1988, at a USC-hosted NCAA Championship at North Ranch Country Club in nearby Westlake Village. UCLA added another one 20 years later. The Trojans are still seeking their first NCAA title.

The teams’ top players – UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay and USC’s Steve Lim (both pictured below) – have traded the course record at Los Angeles Country Club, which is located six miles from Riviera and has the same architect, George C. Thomas. Cantlay shot 63 at LACC last year, a round that Lim bettered by a stroke in USC’s qualifying for its season-opening event.

Here’s a tale of the tape of the two Los Angeles-based programs:

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UCLA

Golfweek/Sagarin rank: 3

Overall record: 117-24-1

Pac-12 finish: 4

Regional finish: 3rd, Bowling Green Regional

NCAA titles: 1988; 2008

NCAA individual titles: Kevin Chappell (2008)

Pac-12 titles: 5th

Top player: Patrick Cantlay, No. 16 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. The sophomore is No. 1 in the R&A’s World Amateur Ranking and recently won the Hogan Award